JP Morgan currency trading boss in manipulation investigation
FORMER RBS currency trader Richard Usher is believed to be one of the financiers under investigation for alleged market manipulation.
Usher, who has worked at JP Morgan since 2010 and now heads the spot trading desk for a range of currencies, wrote a series of emails and messages to traders that are at the centre of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) probe.
Those messages were passed by RBS to the FCA last week.
In the messages, Usher and other traders refer to themselves under names including the “Bandits’ Club” and “The Cartel,” the Wall Street Journal Reported.
Since the messages were handed over the US Department of Justice has also launched a probe into the foreign exchange market.
The forex industry is the latest in a long line to be investigated, in a chain of probes which began with the Libor scandal last year.
Probes into the key inter-bank interest rate have resulted in fines for the banks Barclays, RBS and UBS, as well as inter-dealer broker ICAP.
The FCA, JP Morgan and RBS declined to comment.